Operation: Lily
by flying-cars
Summary: There was a rumour going around that James Potter's new girlfriend had caused a rut between the marauders, but Lily didn't believe it. "Why don't you just talk it over with him?" "Because that means he wins."
1. Chapter 1

There was a rumour going around the school that James Potter's newest girlfriend had caused a rut between the marauders, but Lily didn't believe it for a second. At least, not until Sirius sat beside her, glowering at James over the breakfast food.

"What's the matter?" Lily asked, elbowing Sirius gently to get his attention. His eyes slid from James to her.  
"Penelope is such an awful name, don't you think?" he grumbled, throwing food onto his plate vigorously.

Lily pursed her lips and avoided looking over at the newest couple, where she knew that Remus was trying to talk to James but failing miserably due to Penelope, and Peter was staring at his plate – this she knew because she'd looked over there three times already that morning.

"I've never really given it any thought," Lily said in reply, picking at her bacon. Sirius had placed all his food on a slice of bread, covered it with another, and was eating it like a sandwich. He began muttering to himself but due to the overloading of food it was impossible to understand.

A high pitched giggle caught Lily's attention and she saw Penelope cuddling into James' arm, laughing at what he had said. Sirius gagged.

"I never realised how ugly blonde hair is," he said in disgust. Lily giggled.  
"Sit next to me in Transfiguration first," Lily suggested. "We can sit up the back if it makes you feel more rebellious."  
Sirius grinned. "I think the front will be just fine today, Lily flower. The further away from them I can get, the better it is for me."

He sent one more dirty look at James before standing and following Lily to class.

Transfiguration was a pleasant experience with Sirius by her side, for he was good at it, he was easy to talk to, and McGonagall liked him – all good points for Lily. She needn't struggle with the spells for Sirius could help her through them. Though, if she were being honest, she was playing a little dumber than usual today to distract Sirius from James, who was sitting up the back corner with Penelope.

"I can feel him watching me," Sirius muttered, quickly taking his hands off Lily's wrists. He was guiding her through the movement of the spell (which she was legitimately having trouble with).  
"So what?" she asked.  
"James has this thing about people touching you," Sirius admitted quietly, rubbing his face harshly with his hands. Lily's temper flared.  
"James has no say over who can and can't touch me," she said fiercely. "Besides, he has a girlfriend. I am of no relevance to him anymore. And I legitimately cannot get this bloody spell right and need help!"

Lily tried to complete the pattern fiercely but she knew she did it wrong. Instead of sending out a severe blast of power like she'd hoped, her wand simply produced bubbles. Sirius snorted at her misfortune before erupting into laughter. Lily smiled at him and rectified her mistake, vanishing the bubbles.

"Hey Lily."

Sirius' grin dropped from his face and he turned to his attention to his book. Lily immediately knew who it was, both from Sirius' actions and the voice, but didn't look up.

"Hi James."  
"I noticed you're having a bit of trouble with the spell, did you want some help?"  
Lily finally looked up and made eye contact. James' arm was lowering, as if he had just rubbed the back of his neck. She smiled sweetly at him.  
"Actually, James, Sirius has been doing a brilliant job of helping me out this lesson," Lily said pleasantly. "I never noticed how skilled he was at Transfiguration before."  
"You flatter me, Lily," Sirius said lowly, but he didn't move his eyes from his book.  
James looked between Lily and Sirius frantically, but nodded and returned to his seat. Sirius relaxed immediately.

"Is his relationship with her really that bad?" Lily asked tentatively. Sirius groaned and nodded.  
"It's nice to know he's still chasing after you though," he mumbled. Lily ignored the comment.  
"Why don't you just talk it over with him?"  
"Because that means he wins."

Lily remained silent, for she didn't understand the inner workings of their friendship and she didn't pretend to, and she thought Sirius appreciated that fact.

"Time to pack up, Sirius. Walk me to potions?"  
"Absolutely, Lily dear. I hear today we're working on a devilishly tricky potion."  
"Any potion is devilishly tricky when working with you. I feel sorry for Peter."  
"Remus is lucky to have you as a partner," Sirius mused. "Maybe I can bribe him for a swap."  
Lily laughed. "No way, Black. You can be as miserable as you like, but I'm not switching partners just for you."  
"You wound me!"

Their laughter echoed through the halls as they made their way to the dungeons. It was Sirius' only class without James and Lily could practically feel his mood lifting upward. It made her smile, although the sense of dread that always settled in her stomach on her way to this class was there. Thankfully, when they got to class, the door was open so they didn't have to loiter outside.

Sirius winked at Lily and sauntered over to Peter, leaving his bag at the side of his table carelessly. Lily made her way over to the corner table to Remus, who was flipping through his book quietly. He smiled at her in greeting.

"We're making a Befuddlement Draught today," he said. "Slughorn's not here, either. The instructions are on the board."  
"Probably hung over from last night's party," Lily mused, quickly reading the instructions. Simple enough, although she knew that Remus and herself would be the only ones to complete the potion. Whenever Slughorn wasn't here, half the class left.

"I don't understand what's going on between you four," Lily said bluntly as they prepared the ingredients. "Sirius is a wreck."  
Remus sighed and put down his knife, glancing over at Sirius where he was having a lovely time sprinkling parsley into Peter's hair. "He seems alright now," Remus offered.  
Lily rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean, Remus. Look, if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine, but I think I have a right to know why Sirius is seeking refuge in my company rather than yours."

Remus looked guilty. "Lily, it's not overly simple," he said carefully. "No matter who James dates… he's still my friend. My best friend. James doesn't have to dedicate all of his time to Sirius – I think he's just jealous of Penelope. Peter and I… Well, James is still the same person he was before, isn't he?"

Lily shrugged. Whilst she and James were on ice, she didn't really know all that much about him. Then again, she couldn't shake the feeling that Remus didn't know the whole story.

The rest of the lesson passed smoothly, with students slowly trickling out, Severus included. Lily and Remus didn't speak for the rest of class and she was inexplicably relieved when it was time for lunch.

"Do you want me to wait for you?" Remus asked, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I can help clean up."  
Lily waved him off. "No, I can tell you're hungry. It's no trouble, really. I'll catch up later."

Remus sent her a grateful smile and hurried out the door with Peter. Sirius lingered in the doorway.

"Why are you so nice to us?" he asked. Lily paused.  
"You're good people," she said eventually. "Good people deserve kindness."

With a raise of his brow, Sirius disappeared from the doorway and Lily was left alone.


	2. Chapter 2

"Sirius, it's been three days. I deserve to know why you're bugging to me rather than Peter or Remus."  
"I can't explain Lily, it's complicated."  
Lily frowned at Sirius. He was being deliberately unhelpful. "Tell me anyway," she demanded.

Sirius glared at her, shook his hair back, and launched into his story as if telling it quicker would make it less painful.

* * *

 _They were sitting in the dormitory, sharing rattle snakes and pepper imps. James was lounging on his bed lazily, browsing the map with eerie precision. Remus and Peter were in the library, studying desperately for their upcoming Herbology quiz._

 _"What do you think of Penelope Blossom?" James asked Sirius thoughtfully, gazing at the map.  
"Dumb. Shallow. Doesn't even come close to comparing with Evans."  
James sighed heavily. "Stop bringing her up, will you?"  
Ignoring James' request, Sirius pushed on. "Don't you still feel something for her?" James didn't answer and Sirius knew he did. "You can't let feelings like that go. Love like yours just doesn't disappear overnight."  
James threw the map onto the bed roughly. "I can't wait my whole life for her, Sirius. Pining after her isn't healthy, especially when she's made it indisputably clear that she doesn't feel the same way. I need to move on."  
"Alright, move on, but not with Penelope!" Sirius begged. "There are so many other girls out there, better girls…"  
"I happen to quite like Penelope," James snapped.  
"Well, I don't, and I wouldn't think that you'd ask me what I thought of her if you didn't value my opinion. Or do you only like my opinion when it coincides with yours?" _

_Sirius met James' glare with a fierce one of his own. He and James were both short tempered from having no sleep the night before as it was a full moon, and from losing the quidditch match to Slytherin a week earlier. A feat which Snape had very kindly reminded Sirius of that day, causing Sirius to hex him and get a detention for it – which James had bitten his head off about already, heightening the tensions between them._

 _"I was trying to see if my best mate would support me in my choices," James said quietly, his eyes flashing. "And I can see that he doesn't."  
"I do support you in your choices, James," Sirius said angrily. "I just prefer Lily over Penelope."  
"It certainly seems that way," James replied furiously. "Well, you know what, Black? Maybe you should just date Lily instead! You seem to bring her up enough, it certainly seems like you harbour some emotions for her!"_

 _James' implications made Sirius indescribably angry. James knew full well that all his mates stayed clear of Lily out of respect for him. After all these years, after all they'd been through… Sirius didn't have words for how he was feeling. Betrayed. Furious. Shocked._

 _"I'll date Lily when hell freezes over," Sirius said eventually. "And hell will freeze over when you date Penelope."  
After a tense silence, James said harshly, "I'll date whoever I damn well please, whether you like them or not."_

* * *

"… so he's dating Penelope to spite me because I called him out on his shit!"  
"And now he thinks you're trying to start something with me, which is why you stopped holding my wrists in Transfiguration!"  
"That pretty much sums it up, yes."  
Lily decided that it was best to ignore that they were basically fighting because of her. She looked into Sirius' eyes worriedly. "You really miss him, though."  
Sirius shook his head adamantly. "No. Not this James. Not the one who was in such a foul mood he decided to ditch me for a girl."  
"I'm not going to pretend that I understand because I'm still really very confused about the entire situation," Lily admitted slowly, "But I think that both of you have to take some steps to fix your friendship. I'm sure Penelope isn't that bad."  
"Penelope really is that bad," Sirius snorted. "No, James just needs to realise that he's wrong. You do care for him, don't you Lily?"

Lily didn't reply.

"Evans, tell me you harbour at least a sprinkle of friendship towards James," Sirius begged, widening his eyes desperately.  
"We aren't friends but I don't hate him," Lily allowed. Sirius grinned in success.  
"That's all James needs to know! He just needs hope from you and he'll ditch Penelope in a heartbeat!"

Lily gazed off into the distance. The lake was shining brightly under the rare sunlight, its surface glimmering like diamonds.

"I don't want to lead him on like that, Sirius. I think I've hurt him enough, don't you?"  
Sirius looked a tad guilty. "But you're not really leading him on, are you? It's more like a tentative step towards friendship!"  
Lily sighed. "If James doesn't feel anything for me, then me suddenly showing him friendship won't change anything. On top of that, I'm not going to act nice to him just so you can have your mate back, the whole idea sounds mental."  
Sirius groaned. "But he _does_ feel something for you, that was the whole point of our fight! Lily, were you even paying attention? Are you listening to me now?"

Truthfully, she wasn't. Lily was thinking about James. It was so unlike him to fight with Sirius. But… well, as much as she enjoyed Sirius' company, he could get very annoying very quickly, and she didn't much like Penelope in the Gryffindor common room. Neither did anyone else, really, and as a prefect Lily had a duty to the other students.

"Fine," Lily said. "I'll be nice to him. But that's all I'm doing, Sirius! I'm not going to try and convince him to break up with her."

Sirius grinned like he did when he was planning a major prank. "Oh, trust me Lily, you won't need to. He'll do it himself."

* * *

Much to Lily's dismay, Sirius was giving her 'pointers' and 'heads ups' over the next few days on how to best capture James on his own. However, upon realising that she legitimately struggled with an area of Transfiguration, she thought up a different game plan, and had already clued Remus in. It involved a bit of acting, but she knew they could pull it off.

If James really did feel something for her as Sirius believed, he would act on it whether they were alone or in public. And Lily was one of those _go hard or go home_ kinds of people, so in public it was.

It was a Friday night so Penelope was in the Gryffindor common room. She and James were lounging on the couch – the best one in the common room – in front of the fire, earning dirty looks from most students. It was a matter of principle to them; you simply didn't have other students from different houses in your common room. If you did, you were polite enough to leave the best seat in the house to the permanent residents. Penelope was oblivious to their dirty looks, completely wrapped up in her own world that revolved around James.

Remus was trying to coax James into conversation, but Penelope was needy, continuously asking James to hold her, play with her hair, kiss her, and give her a massage… It was getting sickening and Remus finally gave up on communication. Sirius was nowhere to be found and Peter had disappeared once the displays of affection started.

Lily gathered her Transfiguration books in her arms and flounced over to Remus, who was studying his fingernails – his cue for her that it was time to intervene. She sat beside him on the arm of his chair, handing over her book and pointing to a diagram on human transformations.

"Remus, can you help me on this, please?" Lily asked in a desperate tone. "I just can't seem to get the hang of it!"  
Looking up curiously, Remus browsed Lily's book. "Human transfiguration?" he asked doubtfully. "I don't know, Lily, it's not really my area of expertise."  
"What are you talking about, you're great at Transfiguration!" Lily replied. Remus shook his head and handed back her book.  
"You're better off asking James, he's much better at it," Remus said loudly, ensuring that James heard. The man in question looked up upon hearing his name.

"What are you guys talking about?"

Remus looked up at Lily questioningly, and she shrugged as if to say _why not?_ "Lily really needs help with her Transfiguration work, can you help her?"  
James screwed up his face. "Can it wait until tomorrow?" he asked. Lily adopted a hurt expression.  
"Oh, um, I suppose so," Lily murmured. She stood to walk away, but turned as though a sudden thought struck her. She spoke confidently. "Actually, tonight is much more convenient seeing as you have quidditch practice tomorrow."  
James looked up in surprise, ignoring Penelope's pleas. "You know my quidditch schedule?"  
"Of course."

Actually, Remus had told her, but James didn't need to know that. A small smile graced James' face.

"Well, Penelope leaves in half an hour, how about we do it then?"  
"I'm offended you don't remember I go to bed in half an hour," Lily teased.

She had deliberately used the term 'remember' to spite Penelope – it made her and James seem more friendly than they were, and implied that James and Lily stayed up together. Judging my Penelope's expression, the implication went through.

James sighed and murmured, "Of course you do." His gaze flicked from Penelope to Lily – offended to pleading.  
"Just do it now, Lily's desperate," Remus interjected. "It won't take long."  
James looked to Penelope questioningly who shook her head. "James, I'm only here for half an hour more," she whined, pouting. "Don't you want to spend time with me?"  
"I'll see you tomorrow though, I'll make up for it, I promise," James said earnestly, then he gently guided her to the portrait.

Lily watched the two have a whispered argument whilst Remus praised her on her well thought out plan.

"Not used to plans going right, are we?" Lily joked. Remus grinned sheepishly.  
"You'd be a good marauder," he said.


	3. Chapter 3

"So what did you need help with?" James asked professionally, joining Lily on the couch. She had taken Penelope's position, Remus leaving them to go find Sirius.  
"Were you and Penelope arguing over me?" Lily asked quietly. She did feel a little guilty about her intervention. She didn't like hurting people, even people she didn't like.  
James waved a nonchalant hand. "It doesn't matter, really. Nothing that can't be fixed."

Lily pursed her lips but let it go. What business was it of hers, anyway?

"Human transformation," Lily said promptly, handing over her book. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong!"  
"I'm sure it's nothing," James said, "Probably just a mispronunciation or something. Say the incantation for me."  
" _Crinus muto_."  
"Oh, alright. Do the wand movement." Lily did so, wand facing her own face. James frowned.  
"I don't know what you're doing wrong," he said honestly. "Everything is textbook perfect. Are you sure you're having trouble?"  
"Why would I lie to you?" Lily asked flippantly, conjuring up a mirror. "Here, look. _Crinus muto._ "

Lily waved her wand, but nothing happened. She was attempting to change the colour of her hair to purple and had so far been unsuccessful. Once, she thought she'd changed a single strand, but it turned out to be a trick of the light.

James began chuckling. "You're not very good at multi-tasking, are you?"  
"What makes you ask that?" Lily demanded.  
"You flick out too much to the left when you speak," James chuckled. "Let me guide you."

Sighing dramatically, Lily faced her wand tip to her nose, and began saying the incantation. It was a strange sensation, having James controlling her wrist, but she did notice a little restriction – her wrist definitely wanted to flick out more than James was allowing.

"There," James said, satisfied. Lily lifted the mirror to find her hair was a lavender purple, a colour much lighter than the one she intended to create.  
"It's too pale," Lily grumbled. "I wanted it darker."  
James smiled. "Primary colours are the easiest to transfigure into. Try blue next time."  
"Do you like blue?" Lily asked, raising a brow. James fiddled with his wand.  
"I prefer red. Gryffindor, you know," he shrugged. Lily smiled and nodded.  
"Thanks for helping me, James. I really appreciate it."  
"It's no problem." James smiled widely at her, making her smile in return. It disappeared as she continued talking.  
"I'm sorry for taking you away from your girlfriend, too," Lily murmured. "She was right, you only did have half an hour left together, I shouldn't have interrupted."  
"It's fine, Lily. I can see her tomorrow. Besides, it would have been hard to concentrate with her around."

He smiled and retired up to the dormitories, leaving Lily to ponder his last remark. There were several ways to interpret the comment. Would he have been distracted by her, because of her needy tendencies? Would Lily have been distracted because of Penelope's beauty (for she was beautiful, even if Lily wished she wasn't)? Was James glad Penelope wasn't there, so he could give Lily his full attention?

Not that it mattered, of course. Sirius had said that was all she needed to do, so she'd just leave it be.

* * *

As the next day was a Saturday, Lily didn't see any of the Marauders until the evening after dinner. Quidditch practice meant that all four of them went down to the pitch – Sirius and James to play, Remus and Peter to observe. Briefly Lily wondered how that went for Sirius, but she shook the thought out of her head. James had just walked in alone, freshly showered, and furious. He kicked some third years off the couch and stretched out along it, throwing an arm over his eyes.

Being the only prefect in the room meant that Lily was subject to the pleading eyes of the third years. Lily sighed and got up, walking over to James. She prodded him in the shoulder.

"Potter, get up now," she ordered, pulling his arm with more strength than he expected. Reluctantly, he sat up. "Go sit over there."  
James looked at the chair Lily was pointing at – far away from the warmth of the fire and unbeknownst to him, directly beside Lily. "No," he said stubbornly.  
"Yes. You're coming to sit with me. Now get up."

Lily gave James her best glare and he sighed, getting up sullenly. The third years quickly hurried back to the couch, mumbling thank you's.

James thumped into the armchair and Lily sat on her straight backed chair. "What's wrong?" Lily asked gently. James looked at her suspiciously.  
"What makes you think something's wrong?" he asked.  
"Because it's not every day you come storming into the common room and kick some kids off a couch."  
"I suppose you're right. Well, Evans, I just got dumped. Surprise. James Potter doesn't know how to deal with his feelings. Everyone can rejoice now that the Ravenclaw bitch is gone. Hooray."

James cynical tone was a new one for Lily, and she thought they'd covered the entire spectrum between them. It made her feel… strange.

"Why'd you two break up?" Lily asked. James, for the first time in Lily's memory, blushed.  
"She was offended that I sent her away just to help you out with homework. Apparently I'm too hung up on you to value her, and need to sort out my priorities. I tried telling her I was just being nice, and we weren't even really friends, but she just wouldn't hear a word of it!" James rubbed his face roughly with his hands and sighed, looking dejectedly at the floor.

Lily floundered for something to say, but her brain came up empty. Thankfully James broke the silence.

"I don't know why I'm talking to you about this. I'm sorry to put this on you."  
"Don't be ridiculous. You're talking to me because despite our differences, you know that you can talk to me. And you didn't put this on me, I asked, so it's my problem."

The two lapsed into silence once more, James lost in his thoughts, Lily debating returning to her homework or continuing the conversation.

"Would you like to know my opinion on the matter?" Lily asked, perhaps a bit too formally for the occasion. James snorted.  
"Sure, why not."  
"I think that Penelope was too insecure for you anyway, and you need to find someone who is more confident in themselves."  
James mulled her words over in his mind. "Like who?"  
"I don't know. Sirius?"  
James burst out laughing. "I'm not gay, Lily!"  
Lily smiled sweetly. "I know that. But you need to fix your friendship, because he's been annoying the hell out of me."  
"I'll work on it."  
"And off the record, James…" Lily took a deep breath. "I consider us friends."

Oh, lies, lies, lies. But the smile on James' face made the white lie worth it.


	4. Chapter 4

The Great Hall was pretty full by the time Lily got down to breakfast, having slept in later than usual. It was by chance, however, that some of the only seats left at the Gryffindor table were by the marauders, as everyone knew that sitting next to them was risky – whether it was being the victim of a prank or food fight, everyone had learned to keep their distance. Sighing, Lily made her way over to them.

"I swear Padfoot, that's what she said!" James was saying enthusiastically. "She really did say –"  
"Good morning Lily," Remus said loudly, cutting off whatever James was saying. Lily wasn't sure she wanted to know, but smiled and sat down beside the werewolf nonetheless.  
"Morning everyone," Lily greeted. "It's nice to see everything is back to normal."  
"What do you mean, back to normal?" James asked immediately, but Sirius elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up.  
"I meant between you and Sirius," Lily replied. A look of relief crossed James' face, making Sirius roll his eyes.  
"Really subtle, Prongs," he muttered.

Thankfully, there was a loud tapping of glass from the teacher's table and McGonagall stood up.

"May I have your attention please? I trust that the news I am about to announce will be spread amongst the school quickly so that those who are not attending breakfast will hear of it soon enough. It has been decided amongst the staff that a Christmas Ball will be held for the students." Excited whispers broke out, but McGonagall kept speaking and they silenced soon enough. "We trust that students will behave appropriately, pranks will be non-existent on that night and let it be known that any wrongdoers will be told to leave." Her eyes narrowed in on the marauders, who each had identical sheepish grins on their faces. "The ball will be held on Christmas Eve, so that leaves a little over two months for you all to organise appropriate attire. More information will be posted around the school by the Head Boy and Girl. Thank you."

Professor McGonagall sat and the hall became so noisy Lily could barely hear herself think. The marauders had put their heads together and were muttering to each other, Remus shaking his head far more than the other three. Lily smiled and finished her breakfast quickly, then stood to leave, making her way out of the Hall easily.

"Lily! Wait!"

Mary MacDonald came hurrying up to Lily, smiling and looking slightly flustered. She linked arms with Lily and began walking at a more dignified pace.  
"A _ball_ , can you believe it? Do you know that this means?"  
"Dancing?" Lily guessed dryly. Mary giggled.  
"Yes. And dresses, and dates, and…"

Mary smacking into the barrister on the staircase face-first cut off whatever else the ball entailed. She let out a long groan.

"I think I'm going to go to the hospital wing," she mumbled, cradling her mouth. Blood was pouring out and she'd lost at least one tooth.  
"Try not to take that as an omen!" Lily called after her, making Mary laugh.  
"It'll take more than that to deter me, Lily!" Mary's words came out jumbled due to the lack of teeth and a mouthful of blood. Wincing, Lily made her way up the castle to the Divination classroom.

Lily was pleasantly surprised when she found herself intrigued in such a vague form of magic. She loved the idea of seeing the future and loved that it was so vague yet so common that there were enough books and magical theories on it to be made into a class. Whilst Lily loved the facts, she enjoyed possibilities more.

The marauders were different. None had time for such sketchy magic and instead chose Care of Magical Creatures, which they all found incredibly amusing due to their animagi and werewolf abilities.

"Are you going to ask Lily to the ball, Prongs?" Sirius asked as they traipsed along the grounds. James looked at Sirius suspiciously from the corner of his eye.  
"She's only just admitted that we're friends, I'm not going to rush into anything," James said proudly. Remus patted him on the back softly.  
"Nice to see you're maturing, mate."  
"Shove off, Moony."  
"What if someone else asks her first, though?" Peter questioned.  
James thought about it for a second before saying, "Well, just because I'm waiting for her doesn't mean she has to wait for me."  
"Okay, I was being sarcastic when I said it before, but now I really mean it when I say it's nice to see you're maturing, James."  
"I was being completely serious before, Remus, don't make me repeat myself. Who are you guys going to ask?"

Peter reminded James that he had to return home for Christmas for his family get-togethers, and Remus shyly admitted he wanted to ask Mary.

"Go for it, mate," Sirius said cheerfully. "What's the worst that could happen?"  
"My furry little problem?" Remus suggested, lowering his voice due to their nosy classmates. Sirius shook his head.  
"That's way before Christmas, it won't be a problem."  
"Well who are you going to ask then? Marlene, I bet."  
"What's wrong with Marlene?"  
"Shut up, guys, class is starting," James hissed.

* * *

"You are going to have the night of your life in roughly two months time," Marlene predicted, staring into the crystal ball in front of her with her best mystical voice. Lily stifled her snickers. "And you are going to find a charming man with a gorgeous smile and amazing snogging skills."  
"At the ball or just in general?" Lily asked, feigning seriousness.  
"Well hopefully in general, Lils, honestly." Marlene fixed Lily with a worrying stare. "Lily, sweetie, I've known you for six years, and not once have I ever seen you snog a guy," she said earnestly. "I cannot possibly have a friend who hasn't kissed a boy by their last year at Hogwarts."  
Lily blushed. "Marlene! I have kissed people, just because you like to scar everybody with your public displays of affection doesn't mean we all do! I just prefer privacy."  
"The crystal ball says otherwise."  
"You and I both know you can't see shit in that fog," Lily said, snatching it away from Marlene with a giggle. She stared into it half-heartedly. "Who are you going to take to the ball?"  
"I am not taking anyone," Marlene said snootily, and Lily looked up in surprise only to find Marlene grinning. "Somebody will be taking me. It's the boys' job to ask the girl, Lily."  
"And I'm sure you'll have no shortage of suitors," Lily laughed. She raised a brow. "Sirius?"  
"You never know. James might suddenly not be all that keen on you by Christmas, maybe he'll ask me."  
"Doubt it," Lily snorted. Marlene looked at Lily in shock.  
"My, my. Is that possessiveness I hear? In relation to James Potter? What _have_ I missed out on?"

Lily sent Marlene her best secretive smile. "Never you mind, Marlene. The crystal ball says now is not the right time to discuss such matters."  
"We definitely mustn't argue with the crystal ball, then."

Oh, she did love to tease her friends.


End file.
